The school year 2022-2023 will begin on the island for general education on November 28, according to information from the Cuban Ministry of Education (Mined) this Friday. As of the 2023-2024 academic year, the regular school calendar will return, which begins on the first Monday of September.
“For the 2022-2023 academic year we will have favorable coverage (of teachers). The province that is still below the national average is Havana,” the head of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, reported at a press conference.
With the presence of @elsa_enaa press conference is held on the start of the #NewSchoolCourse 2022-2023. Wait for more information in future publications on social networks, on the site https://t.co/qccE4WimWj and in the media. #Cuba #CubaMined pic.twitter.com/asFtWWKqCH
— MINED (@CubaMined) November 18, 2022
The capital covers the educational demand at 89 percent, without alternatives. In recent months there has been a noticeable decrease in completion due to leave requested by some workers and retirements. “Havana requires and has always required special attention on the issue of coverage,” Velázquez Cobiella stressed.
During the meeting with some national and foreign media, he reported that more than 1,747,000 students are enrolled for the 2022-2023 academic year, which will have more than 260,000 teachers in the classrooms and will end in July 2023.
The head of Education also referred to a new “teaching-productive strategy” for polytechnic institutes with the purpose of strengthening the job training of students. In the same way, they will implement a project with young people who are currently disconnected from study or work.
Regarding the guarantee of school materials, he said: “We have always been used to giving students a notebook per subject each semester. Now they will be given to start the course, between fifty and sixty percent of the notebooks that they normally receive, and they will be completed to the extent that the country can import the paper to complete the ones that are needed. The same happens with pencils: we deliver two monthly, now it will be one monthly. It’s also a tight rule.”
Companies and organizations in the western province of Pinar del Río, the most affected after Hurricane Ian, have provided premises to resume the school period there. The official highlighted that in that territory more than 240 family homes have been offered for the development of the school year.
As of the 2023-2024 academic year, the regular school calendar will return, which begins on the first Monday in September and ends in June of the following year. This has been affected since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last six years, more than 20,000 teachers have graduated in Cuba, while almost 5,000 places have been filled in higher education centers. However, the low enrollment in pedagogical schools continues to be one of the biggest problems caused by the low motivation of young people, an excessive workload and insufficient salaries.
With information from Radio Havana Cuba, Prensa Latina and Radio Rebelde.
